Artsfest Photos and more news...

Here are some photos I took at Artsfest 2 weeks ago. Sorry for the late update, but I will fill you in with an explanation further down the page...

My space at Art on the Railings:


The Hall of Memory in Centenery Square on the gloriously sunny Saturday:























The fireworks display on Saturday night:


Now for the explanation...

I am going to be leaving the UK for 3 months from the 3rd October, to do some travelling around South America. I'll be visiting Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil, all on a big yellow truck with a group of people whom I've never met, but hope will become good friends.

In that time, I hope to pick up some good inspiration for future work and will have my camera at the ready at all times!

I will have a sale on in my etsy shop next week to celebrate my leaving. While I'm away a friend will fulfill any etsy orders, but the stock may be limited so if you're looking for anything specific, please get in there quick!

I'll also be at Moseley Market this Saturday so hope to see a few of you there.

Bye for now!

Great first day at Artsfest

Wow, it's been a pretty hectic day.

The arts on the railings went pretty well, the sun was shining and lots of people came out to say hello. My pitch was directly in the sunlight for 5 hours so it's safe to say I'm now looking a bit crispy and feeling a little bit of a glow. Met some great people though and sold a decent amount of work.

Packed up at 6pm and then was back in centenery square for the classical fantasia.

Off to bed now as am pretty exhausted and am going to do it all over again tomorrow!

Full report and photos to come after the recovery preiod...

Framed up and ready to go!

Here's a sneak preview of what delights will be on sale at Artsfest tomorrow:

All of the framed prints:


A new square format print of Emmylou Harris, one of my idols. There will only be one of these so be quick if you want to snap it up!


I'll also have the usual cards and unframed prints on offer.

See you tomorrow!

Artfest is upon us!

Artsfest kicks off tonight. Hope those of you that are coming are looking forward to an excellent weekend of entertainment!

I set up my area on the railings of Centenery Square tomorrow, opening at 12 o'clock. I popped down today to check out the site being set up and take a quick photo of the railings so I can plan my space. Here are the photos I took:

Artsfest this weekend

I will have a space on the railings in Centenery Square at Birmingham's Artsfest this weekend. Come and see me between 12 and 6 on either Saturday or Sunday. I'll have prints of different sizes available, framed and unframed. There will be lots of other entertainment going on in the square with live music and dance so well worth a day out!

In other news, I will be leaving the UK for South America on the 3rd October and won't be back in the country until the 4th January. Artsfest and the September 22nd Moseley Arts Market will be your last chance to see my work before I go, so if you are thinking of buying anything from me, please try and make it to one of these.

My etsy shop will be run by a friend while I'm away but stocks may be limited. I shall post further details closer to the time.

Hasta luego amigos!

Bank Holiday Study Trip

I took a trip to Ikea yesterday (I know, bank holiday horror!) to buy lots of new frames in preparation for Artsfest, to sell to the Cherry Tree in Bearwood and to put up some photographs in the Warley Woods Cafe.

On the way there I got a tip off that Ikea has recently changed it's display font from the elegant simplicity of Futura to Verdana, mostly used as a screen font. So a seemingly simple trip turned into a reconnaissance mission, a typographic study trip...

Ikea Coventry hasn't yet completely finished the branding excercise, most of the display material was still written in Futura, but there was the odd hint at the rebrand. I took a photo of one of the offending posters:



The supposed reason behind the rebrand is that Ikea want to use the same font throughout it's branding, from web to print material. To me, this seems like lazy typography. You need to choose a font based on it's end purpose, and Verdana just doesn't cut it when used at a large scale. I'm a bit confused as to why Ikea would spend the extra expense licensing the new font when the old one worked so much better. If it aint broke, don't bother fixing it.

I'm assuming they will be using the font on their instruction manuals too, items that are meant to make the headache-inducing process of putting their furniture together as simple as possible. Keeping the typography simple is key to a document like that.

The type debate is hotting up on the typophile forum, check it out here if you're interested in hearing more type geekery:

http://typophile.com/node/61222

I ended up buying far too many frames than I could carry yesterday; 19 to be exact, and when I came out of Ikea it was raining and had to carry them back to the train station and back home to Brum. My shoulders actually have dents in them this morning. Who says I don't suffer for my art!

In other news, I sold a Moseley Dovecote print to a lady in Sacramento, CA through Etsy. Very exciting.

There are lots of other exciting things happening in the world of becky at the moment but I shall drip feed these to you over the next few days.

Hope everyone's having a fabulous bank holiday!

Better late than never...

So Moseley Arts Market was a great experience on Saturday. I met lots of other stallholders, got some good advice for Artsfest in September, got a better idea of what people like and dislike about my work, and sold a few pieces too! My Moseley Dovecote print was the most popular; not surprising seeing as it's a local piece. The InShadow images also seemed to be popular, and quite a few cards flew off the shelves.

The weather held up, with the morning starting off too hot, but by midday the sun had dropped and it was a pleasant temperature for standing around under a plastic sheet! People seemed in good spirits. After thoroughly enjoying the day, I have signed up for another stall on the 22nd August.

A few people took the information sheets on my Warley Woods prints. Incidentally, I have agreed to supply some of these to the Warley Woods Community Trust cafe in the woods in 2 weeks time. They are going to be displayed on the walls and for sale in the shop and by custom order. More details to follow on that soon.

For now though, I shall leave you with some photos of my day at the Arts Market in Moseley...

beckyismyname's stall:


The Dovecote print in action:

Moseley Arts Market

beckyismyname will have a stall at Moseley Arts Market on the 25th July. The market runs in conjunction with the village Farmers Market and is the first event I will have taken part in in Moseley. I'm very much looking forward to it.

I plan to have some of my framed Warley Woods prints at the event and may even have some local prints of Moseley if I can get out of the house in this sunny weather to take some! It seems to be sunny when I'm busy doing other things at the moment and as soon as I step out with my camera, the heavens open!

I'm also working on a commission for a canvas print of one of my illustrations, which is very exciting, and may spell a new direction for my work. Keep your eyes peeled for further developments here...

beckyismyname set to appear at Artsfest 2009!

I'm so excited about this! I have been chosen to have a space on the railings at Centenery Square in Birmingham City Centre to show my artwork.

Artsfest is an annual arts event held in the city and sees music, dance and visual arts dotted all around the city for 3 days. I have been every year for the past 4 years and always had such a great time discovering new music and artists.

I'll give more updates closer to the time.